Lucking out later

Mike Guy told me before the gig that I'd got lucky: I'd chosen a great night to visit the Archduke. The Anjali Perin Quartet was hot: a good choice. By the end of the night, I was swinging and totally in agreement. It was just a pick-up gig. This was not a regular, rehearsed band, but these were wonderfully competent musicians. Presumably amongst the best in London: stunning stuff and wonderfully enlivening. They were just arrangements of standards, some funky interpretations, some lovely swinging walks and bouncing twos-to-the-bar and syncopations, but this was bliss. This is why we follow this music. Emotional truth, collegial sharing, hype-free, and all with a well informed skill-set.

Anjali was once a classical pianist and violinist. She was also a commercial lawyer. Then she studied her masters at a local London jazz school, and now she's been professional for 5 years. She's mature. She's educated and subtle. She's entertaining with patter and good humour. All that a singer should be. She's also a lover of the great singers, Sarah Vaughan and the like, so there is intense involvement that expresses itself in hand and body movements and richly interpreted lyricism. And vocalese, and pitches that slip over the octaves, and arrangements, and even scat that I can enjoy. This is authentic stuff. And the band: such a great rhythm section. Davide, the bassista Bolognese who has been resident in London for 20 years, had a soft and un-edgy tone that was none-the-less always present. Easy and unforced accompaniment and frequent solos that sang. Drummer Enzo, the other Italian connection, sat with deceptive simplicity, but close your eyes, and this was recording quality: easy grooves, unforced fills, sharp yet understated. I felt Ross stood back earlier, but loosened during the night to longer solos and more adventurous substitutions. Powerful playing and open expression. The whole band just leapt to attention from the first bars of the first set, with a busily syncopated Love for sale. Such energy, solid swing and long adventurous latin solos and montuno accompaniments. Then into Yesterdays and Anj's delightful and very black scat and fluid sense of time. Thereafter, Ellington's In a mellow tone, Softly, You don't know what love is, and a more obscure number done by Chet Baker, Do it the hard way. Also Bye bye blackbird moving from New Orleans to New York, Never will I marry, a Sam Cooke's 12/8 A change is gonna come, and that bouncy Honeysuckle Rose, which speaks with the most suggestive lyrics, as we were told. All pretty obvious as a repertoire, but done with energy, tightness, driving grooves and inventive solos.

Can I say more? A wonderfully entertaining but also intellectually satisfying outing for a pickup band of informed and tasteful and heavily grooving musicians. Anjali Perin (vocals) led a quartet with Ross Stanley (piano), Davide Mantovani (bass) and Enzo Zirilli (drums).

Lucking out in London

We've left the kids behind to look after the dog, and it's another jaunt to Europe. This is a family visit, with Megan and Mum, so I don't expect to get to much jazz, but I always try to hear something in any city I visit. For the first outing in London, I certainly lucked out. Not just for quality but also for coincidence.

Firstly, you should know there's a wonderfully purposeful and comprehensive listing of jazz in London which is available online and in print from a few jazz centres. It's unceremoniously called “Jazz in London”, but it's a gem. Twelve pages of small-print listings of gigs from a range of venues, both better and lesser known ones (Ronnie Scott's, Pizza express, 606 and Vortex come to mind as better known). My first thought was, what a scene! I was overwhelmed with options. In the end, my time and knowledge of the town was limited, so I chose one with two bands, free entry, on the tube and near our apartment, and at a time that fitted family and tourist outings. Either I lucked out, or this is a scene like I can't imagine! I've now decided it's a bit of both.

The venue was Archduke Live! It seemed pretty modern, swish and tame on entry, and the first duo initially seemed fairly subdued and lounge-bar-ish at first. But listening with my ears instead of eyes, I realised the very complex vocal contortions, and the lovely movements into and out of dissonance by the pianist. Then vocalist Zena James introduced her offsider as Mike Guy. I thought I knew that face! Mike Guy trained at the jazz school in Canberra, moved to Melbourne and and now resides in London. I wrote him up when he returned to Canberra for a visit and performed at Trinity with old mates a few years ago. We chatted. He's now busy 6 nights a week on Keys 2 in Thriller, the Michael Jackson musical which is now playing on Shaftesbury Avenue. You probably know that London is a centre for musicals and they congregate around Soho and Shaftesbury Avenue. It's big business and there are something like sixty of them on at any time, and they can go on in the same theatre for years. It's a big business for capable reading musicians. Mike's had this gig for the last 18 months. He'd called in a sub for the night to back Zena. Mike told me of his subs: one was keys with Level 42; another toured with household names. Very impressive.

Back on the gig, the tunes were soft and restrained in volume with a range of standards and pop tunes. Michael Jackson's Human nature is so good it has to become a standard. Otherwise, Body and soul, Old Black Magic, Nat King Cole and the like, and an end on a tune composed by Zena's father, a bluesy 12-bar called Peace of mind. “It's been a long time / playing with my mind / I can't find / some peace of mind”. This was the opening act, as a duo, and entertaining eaters, so it was not raucous. But Zena's singing was busy with delicious jazz complexity and softly voiced, although, for me, a bit too excited on the heavier lyrics like Body and soul. I only heard a few tunes and what with ordering beers and looking around, I forgot to note Mike's style in accompaniment, but he was wonderful in solos in the comfortable but intelligent way he departed from underlying chord statements to explore substitutions. A lovely performance and a great start to the night. Zena James (vocals) performed a duo set with Mike Guy (piano) at the Archduke.

Jazz in London